In Their Own Way
by DaCountOfMonteCristo
Summary: Bruce returns from the aftermath of a four year battle and his family has changed, but that's not the only thing that's different. Many twist and turns. Some major ones in the first three chapters. Yeah...Tim is also in it.
1. 1 - Homecoming

This takes place after Bruce washes a shore after a battle he had with Braniac, who died in the explosion . It takes him four years to return to Gotham, and he has only one thing on his mind...his boys.

He has a very vauge recollection of what happened, he tries hard to remember the occurrences of that fateful day, but all that comes to mind is an explosion and something Braniac mumbled about "festivites". Normally, this would be the most important this rummaging around Bruce's mind, but at the moment something of _much_ greater importance has come up.

He checks his body, and he is suprised to see that his body lacks any noticable scratches, save for the large gash across his upper back. He catches his breathe and notices a smell that would be otherwise unpleasant if not for its hint of familiarity.

"Gotham Docks." Bruce says faintly through panted breath.

Once he has collected his bearings he begins his voyage, but not before he approaches the homeless man at the Docks. Bruce looks at him, surveying his height and weight before he speaks, but before he gets the chance to release a single syllable the man speaks first...and rather excitedly.

"Y-You're B-Bruce Wayne!" Bruce Nods.

"I need you're clothes."

"What do I get?" Bruce chuckles at the man's blatant question.

"Come to my manor tomorrow, we'll discuss things there."

That man nods and proceeds to give Bruce his clothers, which he accepts and begins his long march home.

As Bruce continues his march wearing nothing but an oversized blue hoody, riddled blue jeans and comically worn out sneakers, he begins to notice something odd about his city...It's remarkably _clean._

He rattles his brain about this as he reaches the gate to his home, he jumps the gate, takes a deep breath and knocks vigourously on the door, instead of using the perfectly fine buzzer near him. But he has a deep-gut feeling that something is...different.


	2. 2 - Some Time Away

Now he's getting impatient. Before he starts to knock again, the door casually swings open revealing a noticeably older but familiar face.

"Master Bruce that shade of blue doesn't match this black at all, may I request a darker shade?"

Without hesitation Bruce Wayne hugs Alfred, but before he can walk in Alfred interrupts.

"Drink this glass of water Master Bruce, it will help calm you down from your shock."

"There's nothing wrong with me Alfred." Alfred sighs and drinks the water instead.

"...At the moment Sir."

Bruce steps by his worried butler into his unusually quiet home. He looks around at the seemingly unchanged house as he calls out to his sons: Damian and Tim. Out of nowhere the "nerdy" one of his sect appears, in awe of his father's return.

"B-Bruce...I mean, you've been gone for so ...how've you been?

"You have a moustache, and a nice patch of chin hair I see. Looks like someone's growing up. Where's your brother?"

Tim nervously looks at his feet a second and twirls his noticeably longer hair as he ponders this question.

"Huh? Which one? Nevermind. Can I go? Bruce stares intensly at his son, trying to force eye contact and failing on Tim's behalf.

"No."

Bruce moves his son and marches towards his study, where he finds a slightly smaller man with features remarkably similar to his own. But with a slightly darker, almost exotic tone who drops what he is reading and walks over to him. The man is wearing a black robin t-shirt and dark blue jeans and is clichely chewing and blowing bubbles of gum. His hair jet black and messy. He looks at the men with an intent to run and embrace him, but insteads lazily walks directly in front of him and speaks.

"That shade of blue doesn't match your pants."

With this Bruce hugs him strongly and speaks.

"You've grown Damian."Damian nods and looks at the door leading to the hallway.

"That's what milk does to a boy in four years I guess."

"I mean you've literally grown and wait...did you say _Tim_?"

"I kinda grew out of the whole prince of gotham thing. Doesn't interest me. I'm just Damian Wayne...that's all."

"Wow!" Bruce proclaims. Damian scowls a little as he puts a finger to his mouth to shush his father before taking a deep breath and screaming out-

"Yo Baby D!"

Before Bruce can open his mouth to ask him who that is, a small black-haired child comes bumbling into the room looking happily at Damian and Bruce.

"I'm Daniel Thomas Wayne, but my uncle Damian calls me Baby D, but I think he's the baby." The boy leans in and whispers

"But don't tell him that, he might get mad at me."

Bruce is dizzy now he sits down in his chair before being greeted by Alfred brandishing another glass of water.

"Here you are sir." Bruce takes it and drinks it all in one gulp.

"Thank you Alfred." Now Tim enters back into the room and he's scratching his chin looking at his father before the door is busted in by an adult man and woman.

"Daniel where ar-" The man says with the woman next to him carrying a large stuffed bat.

Now the man and woman are staring at Bruce, with the man crying a little.

"Always so emotional Dick, and you to Barbara."Says Damian. He looks down to see Daniel tugging at his shirt.

" Uncle Damian, does mommy and daddy know him?

" They know him...very well"

"Dick I-" Before Bruce can finish his sentence Dick gives him a swift punch in gut causing Bruce to cough a little.

"That's for missing my wedding!" Bruce slowly gets up realizing his age.

"But Dick I-" Dick sweeps his leg sending Bruce crashing into the floor."

" And that's for missing the day my son was born!"

. . .

"Uncle Damian, I don't think daddy likes him very much."

"Give it a second." Damian chuckles.

Dick extends his hand and picks the old man up and hugs him while smiling.

"I love you dad."

"Uncle Damian our family is weird. I don't get it. Who is that?"

Bruce kneels down to meet the boy at almost eye level.

"I'm your Grandpa Daniel." The boy's eyes lit up with excitement, then almost immediate confusion."

"My uncle said you were really tall, but you're just as tall as him." The boy posed the statment as more of a question than anything. Immediately Bruce has the same confused expression as him."

"What do you mean, I'm taller than both of your uncles." As Bruce stands he notices theres no one crowding the front of him, yet he still hears a voice distinguably older than Daniel's, who seems to be flicking a zippo lighter

" Not really feelin' the blue...but, you know me, I'm more of a fan of red myself."


	3. 3 - Him

"Jason."

"In the flesh...a second time!...But hey, i'm sure you of all people knew that anyway." Bruce is completely shocked.

"You're h-" Jason cuts him off.

"I bet...you were going to say _home_ , and you would be correct...And I _bet_ you were, and probably still wondering about all of these _changes_ at your beloved manor. So...let me fill you in. I live here, Dick lives here, Barbs lives here, Gordon has moved to Los Angeles, They had a wedding here last September, had a healthy baby boy on Christmas, Damian broke your vase...uhhhh...Gotham is crime free, no need for masked heroes or monsters to go bump in the night anymore. Hmmmm, Tim has _total_ control of the company, as well as total control of a bitchin' goatee, let's seeeeee...hmmmmm, you're baby boy has been a normal teenager for the sake of his nephew, he has a girlfriend. She's cute, kinda annoying, they made out on your bed. and uhhh well...nothing."

Bruce looks at him a long time without blinking.

"Jason...son...what is it?" Jason pinches the bridge of his nose as he walks over to the cabinet of liquor Bruce was harboring and he grabs himself a glass and a bottle of whiskey, but only to drink straight from the bottle.

"1972? Good stuff."

"Jason? bruce says quietly but sternly."

" Ra's is hiding somewhere and Joker is in a cell...he's retired from crime."

"...Jason...who died?" Jason takes another sip of the whiskey.

"Bruce...what was your mother like? Did you love her?" He doesn't understand Jason's question but answers him anyway.

"She was a kind, beautiful, yet sometimes distant woman. And yes I loved her, of course I loved the woman who gave me life and brought me into this world." Jason takes another swig at his whiskey and casually nods up in down in acceptance of his father's answer.

"Talia...my mom died." Bruce had an excellent poker face. he and Jason walked to the adjacent bar and both sat on bar stools next to each other, taking turns drinking the whiskey straight from the bottle in total silence.

"I loved my mom...I still do." Jason quietly spoke.

"We both do." Bruce solemnly replied.

Jason grabbed the empty bottle and threw it out of the open window, much to Bruce's dismay.

"Go to bed old man, we have to talk about the family business tomorrow."

"The street cleaning business?" Bruce asked.

"We have another?" Replied Jason sarcastically. Jason slowly leaves the room with Bruce still sitting at the bar, but with no drink in as he reaches the doorway he pauses, white hairstreak still shiny and visible.

"Sh-Mom...Mom left you a letter, it's on your nightstand."

Jason leaves towards the kitchen to make himself a bowl of cereal in the pitch blackness but as he grabs the fridgerator door, he notices something.

"Always with a flair for the dramatic, huh Tim?" Tim leaves the shadowy corner of the room and speaks.

"Why didn't you tell him?"

"...Y'know the best bowl of frosted flakes is the last bowl, because you get all the sweet dust and crumbs from the bottom of the bag."

"...Jason?"

"It didn't come up."

"But he deserves to know!"

"...How did it feel Tim...to kill _him_. Who would of thought the pure bird would be the one to pull the trigger. To kill him... It's almost _funny_. Tim marches away.

"Oh and Tim?" Tim turns around.

" I know you're a growing boy and all, but cut your hair and stop masturbating so loud, you're gonna wake the neighbors...But hey, I like blondes myself."

Tim's face is a furiously deep shade of red, he embarrasingly storms off to his room and slams the door. Jason laughs as Tim damn near runs away from wipes his tears and sighs before looking back at where the boy once been...

"The world's better off without him kid."


	4. Chapter 4 - When The Music Stops

" _Uncle Tim?_ " the child whispered as he slightly nudged the sleeping body.

Tim sleepily looks over his back to his nephew, and instead of responding he shrugs and rolls back over to go to sleep. But the determination of the boy to complete his task would prove to be to much for Tim.

Seeing Tim asleep again, the boy sighs and takes a deep breath before screaming out to him with all of his might.

"Uncle Tim, Uncle Damian told me tell you that breakfast is ready!"

Before Tim can respond, Daniel runs downstairs to the kitchen and stands attentively in front of Damian with his hand above his head in a military salute.

"Mission accomplished!" Says the younger boy. Damian smirks at him while preparing the food.

"Peachy." Replies Damian.

Hearing this the young Grayson boy runs to the kitchen table to take a seat.

Tim is now seen walking into the kitchen to join Damian and Daniel. Damian turns to Tim for a quick second, then double-takes to survey Tim's morning attire consisting of plaid pajama pants, and an oversized red robin t-shirt.( Batman and Robin are now global icons, whose likenesses are used for merchandise and the like)

"And how are we today Sunshine?"Says Damian sarcastically. Tim scoffs before replying.

"Y'know something baby bird, you're alot like _him_." Damian looks at him for a second to register what was just said to him.

"My Old Man?" Said Damian, now sitting down with his food and focusing attentively.

Tim toils around his food for a second, before scratching his chin. Knowing this to mean no, he asks Tim again.

"Well?" Tim chuckles a little before answering.

"Jason." This makes Damian frown deeply. But, before he can respond, Daniel cuts him off.

"I think so too Uncle Tim." Tim laughs and high fives Daniel, while Damian looks at them rather upset."

"Uncle Tim, did I hurt Uncle Damian's feelings?" Before anyone can say anything, the man himself strolls into the kitchen laughing with Dick in toll.

He walks right over to the shorter Damian and rustles his hair.

"What's wrong with you sunshine?" Tim is bursting with laughter now and this makes Damian scowl even deeper than it already smiles and looks over to his son who is staring at Tim as he eats.

"How're you today champ?"Dick asks his son this, but he doesn't reply right away, instead he walks over to Tim and continues eating in the seat next to causes Tim to stare at the boy before he says anything.

"Uncle Tim looks lonely."Everyone stares at him, almost forcing him to reply to the statement.

"What gives you that idea small child?"

"I dunno." Daniel replies, while not looking at Tim. Before Tim can say anything, Jason cuts in to make an important statement.

"While this is very riveting indeed, I feel as though there is something that we need to discuss amongst us brothers while everyone's away."

"The cleaning business." Replies the always perceptive Damian in a way that was much more a statement, than a question. Jason nods knowingly before responding.

"There's no more trash to take out fellas...do we retire our brooms and close up shop?"

Everyone is in awe of his question. Dick's been quiet for awhile, and decides now is the time to speak.

"Well..."

Everyone turns sharply to him, except Daniel who is looking down while eating.

"I'm out. Sure I'm physically able to uhhh _clean_ , but I have a son now, and he comes first."

Daniel shoots his head up.

"Does this mean I don't have to clean my room?!"

"No." says everyone as Tim taps his forehead, before resonding.

"I mean..uhh, like the umm, But really." Daniel snickers.

"Uncle Tim doesn't talk very good." Tim looks back at him, then back at his food.

"Gotham doesn't need Robin anymore." Dick coughs and elbows Tim in the shoulder.

"Brooms I mean- I meant Brooms." Jason can't believe what he is hearing.

"This is a joke right?...Dick?...Tim?!" Both boys are looking down at their food and Damian is saying nothing.

"You assholes wouldn't be here if it weren't for _brooms!_ You'd still be stealing tires of off cars in Crime Alley!"

Dick stuffs a fork full of eggs into his mouth.

"Wrong origin story Jay. This is what's best for the family." Dick says casually. Damian jumps in.

"And i'm not family Grayson?!" Everyone knew now that Damian was pissed, because now he only said last names when he was truly upset."

"No more of this _brooms_ bullshit either. I wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for Batman and Robin! Tim tries to calm him down, but is cut off anyway.

"But Dami-"

"You had a family already! Don't you understand...Robin was always just an option for you! It was our livelihood. It was life or death for us!" Damian walks past Jason and taps his makes quick eye contact with him before leaving.

"Some of us here knows this all to well."

Damian leaves the room, but not before rustling Daniel's Tim nor Jason wants to talk anymore. But Daniel speaks instead.

"Dad...Aren't we Uncle Tim's only family?"Dick looks at his son, thinking hard about how to answer his only child, and not upset Tim.

"Tim...doesn't have another family. What Damian means is that he has a big family." And without hesitation, Daniel respond.

" Grandpa has a big family too." And that's when everyone realized the proverbial elephant in the room.

" Bruce wouldn't want us to stop being in the field." Says Jason. Tim takes a deep breath before making his statement...

" But what about the Jo-"

In the middle of his sentence, a 5 foot nothing blond girl, falls through the door after eavesdropping.

"Uhhhh...so this isn't the bahroom huh? well I gotta go." Dick looks at her sternly as she tries to leave.

"Cassie, what did you hear?"She replies nervously and very fast.

"Uhhh nothing, especially nothing about you guys being not that. Like if someone where to say it, I didn't hear , not Jones, did not hear anyone say anything about anybody being Batman or Robin or anything remotely close. But especially not Robin. But I mean it would make sense, like I mean, there are four of you guys and four of them. Like, that would be insane. I mean, like, but it _is_ insane because you guys aren't like masked vigilantes, who fight crime, y'know like vigilantes do, because that would be like-"

"OH MY GOD... Damian's girlfriend would you please stop talking,just for a moment, i'm about to die over here!" yells snickers while drinking his coffee and mumbling something that sounds like _'again'_. Now Cassie is breathing heavily causing Dick to worry.

"Cassie?" Dick says calmly.

"Huh?!" She replies frantically.

"Calm 'll talk. But first you need to tell us how you got in here." She takes a deep breath before spitting out the the whole story in one long, unintelligble sentence.

"I was walking home from the mall with my friends, when I stopped by and decided to surprise Damian, So I approached the door and I was about to ring the buzzer, but I heard yelling so I came in...the door was unlocked by the way, and I rushed to the door to open to see what was wrong." Jason buts in

"But you didn't , because you heard something that you shouldn't have...So does that mean we kill her, Dick?"

"WHAT?!" yells both Dick and Cassie. Tim then jumps in sarcastically.

"I guess we have no choice."

Cassie then faints,landing hard on the kitchen floor.

"Uh-Oh." says Daniel.

*A few hours have passed and Cassie is slowly regaining consciousness*

"Geez Cassie." says Damian to Cassie as she slowly wakes up.

"It's cold...where am I."

"You read comic books, you tell me?" She gives a few hard blinks as she surveys the area and her eyes begin to widen at the realization.

"This...this is really the Batcave?!" Damian slowly nods in response.

"S-So you really are R-Robin?" Damian slowly nods again. She slowly turns to Dick.

"And you're N-Nightwing." He smiles and waves and then replies.

"Yep." She squeals and turns to Jason.

"And you're the bad boy, you're the Red Hood." He grunts in response and continues typing on the lastly turns to Tim.

"Red Robin...the nerdy science one."

"Guilty." says Tim with no hesitation as he brings her water and towels.

"This is too much to handle in one day."Cassie says. Tim chuckles and responds.

"You're telling us that like we don't know, I mean this is the _second_ time one of us has dated a police comissioner's daughter...but i'm sure you're well aware of that already." Damian walks over to her.

"Cassie...you can't tell anyone." She smiles at seeing her boyfriend.

"Can I be a Robin too, or like a Robinette or something?" Damian laughs loudly, which is something he only does when Cassie's around.

"As much as I would love to to see you in spandex and short-shorts, that's a huge no."

"Tim can I?"

"No."

"Dick?"

"Super no."

"I won't ask Jason I guess."Damian laughs again before responding.

"Tim didn't ask Jason, and look at how that turned out." Damian turns to Dick.

"She needs to talk to Bruce." The girl then grabs Damian by his shoulders,

"I don't wanna talk to Batman. He'd kill me."

"Batman doesn't kill." Damian mutters. She points back to Jason.

"He does."

"But he's not very good at it." replies Damian, followed by a cup whizzing to his temple, but he catches it out of the air.

"Wow. Damian you're fast." Damian grins a seductive grin.

"I certaintly hope not, Ms. Jones."

Disgusted at is brother's flirtyness(if such a word exists)Jason shouts to him.

"Hey DiCaprio, when you're done wooing your lady friend come over here!

Damian blushes slighty and rushes over to the giant monitor that's tuned to the Gotham news , Cassie, Dick, Tim, and Jason are all staring at the screen seeing a homeless man holding an audio recorder. He's standing at the Gotham Observatory and is surrounded by cameras.

"I know the indentity of the whole Batman organization!" The homeless man shouts.

Everyone in the cave is worried and they turn to Cassie as Dick speaks.

"You said that the door was unlocked, didn't you Cassie?" She nervously nods her head up and before they can say anything, Daniel walks down the first few steps and calls out to them.

" I forgot to tell you guys that Grandpa Bruce said a man was coming by today. So I unlocked the door for him." Everyone turns to Daniel,shocked at the revelation and feeling foolish for letting this happen. But before they can scold him, the man on tv speaks again.

"I am here to tell you the identity of Batman! Batman's real name is-"

Suddenly...the screen statics out for a second, and when it comes back you see a splatter of blood and a hole in the head of the once speaking man. The screen then fades completely to black and you hear a familiar, but raspy voice along with loud, but stuttering circus music.

"Did you really think that killing me would be that _easy_...Tim Drake-Wayne."

Cassie puts her hand over Tim's shoulder to comfort his apparent shock. But before she can open her mouth to give him some words of comfort, he gestures over to the right of the Batcave and speaks.

 _"He's here."_

Everyone looks over to the abyss of darkness that Tim was looking, and then they quickly move from the computer to suit up in their respective attires. Tim however, just stays in the chair... sharply turns to him and nervously grabs his shoulders.

"Who?!" Almost if on que, a large hulking figure, some may refer to as batman ,appears behind both Tim and Cassie and then he speaks, in his low and brisk tone of voice.

"We'll talk later." The girl faints again in fear of Bruce,as Alfred walks into the picture. to almost immediately leave back out.

"Oh dear, I'll go retrieve some towels for the young lady." Batman stares scornfully into Tim eyes before speaking.

"Dick, you're driving Jason and Damian...Tim you're-" Tim is seen putting on his domino mask, completing his uniform.

"I know." They are both seen running to the else has already left, leaving just Alfred and Cassie alone in the is awake now and she turns to Alfred , who is diligently caring for her.

"Al-Alfred...Is Batman gonna hurt Tim?"

" Not in the way that you can physically see, Miss Jones."

She slowly walks over to the old costumes an puts her hand over the glass case of the female Robin outfit.

" I must commend you Miss Jones." She looks at him mildly confused.

"Ever since Master Damian met you, he's become quite the charming socialite."

"How was he before?" Alfred smiles when thinking of how differen't Damian is now compared to his assassin past.

 _" Differen't."_

"Y'know I...I think I love him." Alfred throws her a very british smile.

"I don't doubt that you do. But, do try and understand Miss Jones that you are the police comissioner's daugter. Things won't bode very well if he were to find out about our... _extra-curricular_ activities."

"I understand Alfred."

"Very well, you are an adult, and your decision is yours alone. But it will be a difficult adjustment for you...For all of us, ." She nods and sits down at the computer, that is now showing multiple scenes and angles of the crime.

"I'm worried about him."

"I know." Says Alfred.

"Alfred?"

" troubling you?" She pauses for a moment

.

"What...what happens when the music stops?"


End file.
